The Easter Idea Place

A wide selection of satin, silk, organdy, and tulle Easter Dresses in lavendar, pink, blue, yellow, green, ivory and white is available at Amazon.com.

by Angela Billings

Here are 11 easy ways to help your kids celebrate Easter.

1.Make paper plate bunnies. Simply take one white paper plate and cut 2 ear shapes from it and staple or glue them to the top of another white paper plate and draw a face on it. Glue cotton balls around the edge of the plate.

2.Cut out construction paper Easter eggs and color and paint them to hang around the house.

3.Use rabbit, chick, cross and egg shaped cookie cutters for toast, sandwiches, brownies, rice krispie treats and more.

4.Color your own eggs by making your own egg dye. Try beet juice, kool aid and anything that has color.

5.Make Easter egg holders, cut empty paper towel tubes about 2 inches each and wrap in colorful paper. You can then sit your eggs on them.

6.Cut out construction paper egg shapes and write a Bible verse on each one about what Easter is really about.

7.Make small Easter baskets and deliver to nursing homes to those residents that never get visitors and to your elderly neighbors.

8. Read the Easter story in the Bible and some Easter books.

9. Have an Easter egg hunt and invite children of the community.

10. Decorate an outside tree with plastic Easter eggs.

11. Have a special breakfast, lunch or dinner on Easter Sunday!

Angela Billings is a stay at home wife and mother who publishes an online newsletter Home and Family Ezine. http://www.homeandfamilyezine.com

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by S.L. Simmons

Instead of giving your children a big basket of candy for Easter, to save money in the long term consider giving them only a few treats and more books, crafts and educational toys. Candy is a big contributor to tooth decay, which can result in expensive dental bills. Sweets are also consumed right away, so with Easter baskets filled with only candy in a few days everything is gone and there is nothing to show for your money.

Even if you spend a little more in the short term on the gift items listed below, your children will be getting hours of fun from these types of small craft items and toys, which means that over time you will be getting more value for your money. Plus, items like books and sand toys are especially frugal purchases because when your children have outgrown them, they may still be in good enough condition to pass along to your friends or relatives, or sell at a garage sale

Some frugal Easter basket ideas include:

1. Books – stack up on used children books from garage sales, thrift shops and library book sales during the year. Keep a big stack of books stored away in a closet and then you will have some inexpensive books add to Easter baskets and Christmas stockings.

2. Crayons and a coloring book.

3. Modeling clay and some interesting mold and sculpture tools

4. For older children, balloons and a small pump to make balloon animals and sculptures.

5. A bottle of bubbles and some special wands for blowing bubbles.

6. A package of seeds, and child sized gardening gloves and garden tools.

7. Punch balls.

8. If you live in an area where it is getting warm enough to go to the park or beach by Easter, then assorted sand toys and beach balls are always a fun gift.

9. Check party stores for party favors and novelty items you can buy on sale or in bulk. One of the stores in our area has big grab bags of marked down and discontinued toys and favors for a few dollars each. When our kids were small I would buy several of these bags and use the toys for rewards extra good behavior, as special gifts on plane trips, for Easter baskets and for Christmas stockings.

10. Disposable cameras. Then spend the afternoon at the zoo or some other interesting place where your kids can take pictures.

For a few healthy treats besides colored eggs, try to add in items with some nutritional value, such as chocolate covered almonds or yogurt covered raisins.

By S. L. Simmons, editor at Always Frugal. Visit our site for more articles on topics such as living on one income, ways to make money when you don’t have a regular job, tips for cutting expenses, budgeting tips and more frugal living artices.

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by Susie Cortright

Celebrate this season of renewal, abundance and love with some new family traditions. Here are seven ideas:

1. Create a kindness wreath for your front door. Begin with a small, plain wreath. A week or two before Easter, distribute 10 or more ribbons in bright spring colors to each family member. Whenever someone reaches out to another in kindness during the week, another ribbon is tied onto the wreath.

2. Fill a wicker basket with handmade cards featuring cheerful messages and perhaps a small gift or two. Leave the basket anonymously on a friend’s doorstep, along with a request that they empty the basket and do the same for someone else.

3. Sit down with your children and each create a special collage or drawing that depicts what Easter means to each of you. The artwork can become a permanent part of your family’s Easter decorations. Before they go into storage at the end of the season, scan them or take a photograph so you can record the artwork in your family journal or scrapbook album.

4. Videotape (or audiotape) young children singing a fun seasonal song. These renditions of “Little Bunny Foo Foo” and “Here Comes Peter Cottontail” will be treasured for years to come. Make copies and send the tapes to family and friends whom you can’t be with on Easter.

5. When it’s time for your annual Easter get together, present each guest with a 6×6 or 8×8 sheet of cardstock and ask them to handwrite a message especially for the Easter holiday – perhaps ways that they are feeling joy, gratitude, or hopefulness. Snap a photo of each guest and create a simple (and quick) mini scrapbook album as a keepsake, featuring one page for each guest – with their photo and Easter message.

6. Make a Garden Journal. Cover an ordinary dime-store composition book or journal with spring patterned papers or magazine clippings of your favorite flowers. Now record the process of creating your family garden this year. Make sure to include pictures of each of you working in the soil. Don’t forget the journaling – and lots of flower pressings.

7. Buy or make handmade Easter greeting cards and send them to friends and family. Make a point to send out at least seven cards this season to people with whom you’d like to create a deeper friendship.

May these ideas for Easter family traditions spark more ideas that you can use throughout the year to celebrate the beauty that comes to us through friends and family.

Susie Cortright is the founder of Momscape.com as well as Momscape’s Online Scrapbooking Magazine and Momscape’s Organic Living Channel – all of which celebrate the simple splendor in our everyday lives. Visit her site today to subscribe to her free weekly newsletters featuring fresh new ideas and inspiration.

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